


As the Wheel Turns

by Caligraphunky



Category: Motorcity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-09
Updated: 2013-01-09
Packaged: 2017-11-24 07:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/631928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caligraphunky/pseuds/Caligraphunky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike has to own up to a mistake he made with Chuck. An argument ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the Wheel Turns

There are no screams coming from the passenger side today, not as Mutt hits ramps, or twists through corkscrews, or barrels through pitch-black tunnels, and Mike keeps stealing concerned glances at Chuck before darting his eyes back to the road. Chuck is never silent, even when there’s no danger, even when he was under the effects of Kane’s fear-killing booster, but now the only sound from the passenger seat is the boop of a computer display popping into view.

Then the _tack-tack-tack_ of Chuck’s fingers over the key board for a scant few minutes.

And then the short _bweop_ as he closes the window to work on the next one.

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

Mike clears his throat.

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

“…You OK, Chuckles?”

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

_boop…_

“Why are all these settings messed up?” Chuck is annoyed, but it’s a focused annoyance, the sort of annoyance that cuts straight through the bedrock of Mike’s growing list of possible excuses into paydirt: a molten pit of guilt in Mike’s stomach.

“I…dunno.” Mike’s eyes flash away from Chuck and down to the dash before he catches himself. He can only hope that Chuck’s hair has kept him from noticing.

The way his copilot twitches his gaze back to the road ahead, his jaw slightly set and his keyboard strokes forceful, tells Mike everything he needs to know about that particular hope.

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

_boop tack-tack-_

“You know Chuck…Dutch and I? Well, we did a lot of work on Mutt last week…Dutch might have changed the settings then, you know?”

_…Tack._

“Why would Dutch have messed with the screen size? And does he really care if the velocity reading was under the trajectory calculator?” Chuck lets the screen go dark with one last bweop and crosses his arms to add extra impact to the sudden slump back in his seat.

“Well…” Mike can only hope he sounds more innocent then he feels, “You know Dutch. He’s kind of…particular.”

“Oh yeah, I saw how _particular_ he was when he spent all week teaching you how to unlock the Ragnaroll in _Rise of the Vanquished!_ ” Chuck’s voice had dropped to an exasperated rasp, breathless and clearly upset.

Mike shrinks in the driver’s seat, locks his darting eyes firmly on the road and looks ashamed, and the way Chuck leans forward and slides his hands down his arms tells Mike that he’s cataloging this reaction to gauge any future lies he might attempt.

Well, “half-truths intended to avoid this exact argument”, was more accurate.

“Look, Chuckles-”

“Don’t you ‘Chuckles’ me, _Michael!_ Why are you being so…so secretive? What happened?!”

 _Oh, now it’s_ Michael, _huh?_ It was only ever Michael when Chuck was really, truly angry.

“Happened? Nothing _happened,_ dude,” Mike gives a quick and dismissive roll of his shoulders as he turns the wheel, guiding Mutt along the curving highway of Motorcity. “It…Look, it really wasn’t anything.”

“But it was _something?_ ” Chuck insists, not even noticing when the car straightens back out with a jerk.

“It really wasn’t, Chuck. I just…I didn’t know how to…”

“Go on.”

Mike huffs a sigh, a release of pent up emotion that he can’t really think of a word for, one that tightens his stomach and makes his throat hurt –he guesses it’s guilt – and starts. “OK…remember Saturday when I dropped you off to the LARPing…uh, arena, and Ruby twisted her ankle?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I offered to give her a ride to a doctor and get it checked out. You can’t take chances with that kind of injury, and…”

Chuck leans forward and looks at Mike searchingly. Mike isn’t fidgeting anymore because he’s also not lying anymore. It makes him feel a little better, but only in the way that eating eight of Jacob’s radish cupcakes feels better then eating nine of them.

“Look, man” Mike has his foot on the gas way harder then he thinks he does, “I’m sorry, OK? It all just happened so fast. One minute we were on our way and the next minute this huge fleet of Kanebots just comes out of nowhere and…”

“ _Ruby_ did all this?”

Mike stammers. “I don’t know! It happened so fast…her fingers were all over, I didn’t know what happened!”

“You let her play with Mutt’s _command interface!?_ Mike, how could you?!”

_boop tack-tack-tack bweop boop tack-tack-tack bweop boop tack-tack-tack bweop_

Chuck’s fingers are flying now, bringing up window after window, his face is going red and his eyes are darting back and forth, taking note of every little detail of every setting. He’s breathing heavily. In fact, he’s nearly wheezing with emotion, chest heaving in rapid little spurts.

“What d’ya mean, ‘how could I?’ I needed someone to bring up the weapons system and-”

And now he’s staring, leaning close to Mike’s face like he’s trying to force something…an apology? An admission of guilt? Mike can’t figure it out.

“You just _told_ her to bring the weapons out? She doesn’t know how to work Mutt! She doesn’t know what lasers work against which parts of the bots! She doesn’t know how to compensate for your crazy driving, or when to overclock the system or when to-”

“ _I didn’t mean to tell her to bring up the systems, OK?_ ” Mike shouts and slams his fist on the steering wheel.

“Then why did you?!” Chuck is completely exasperated now, holding his hands out like he’ll have to catch Mike’s answer or it might explode, and Mike realizes that may not actually be a metaphor.

“I didn’t!”

“You just said you-”

“I didn’t tell _her,_ ” Mike’s brows may well be up to the ceiling for how worked up he looks. “It…it was the heat of the moment!”

A deep breath, and then: “I said, ‘bring up the weapons, Chuck’ and-”

“Both! Of! You!” A yellow window pops up between Mike and Chuck and Julie’s geometric cat-eared avatar stares with a completely bemused expression on its face, “ _Stop!_ ”

There is complete stillness in Mutt’s cab, and Julie continues. “What can I say that will make you remember radio silence if you ever have to have a conversation like that again?”

“Speak for yourself, Julie!” Texas’ window bathes the area in red when it pops up. “Texas was enjoying the show!”

“Show?!” Chuck breaks the quiet in Mike’s car. “What show? Don’t tell me you knew about this!”

“Texas…” Julie’s tone is low and warning and he ignores it completely.

“Well, DUH, Chuck,” and now Mike can hear crunching coming from his avatar, “like we didn’t know this was totally gonna happen!”

Julie’s avatar looks stunned for an instant. “Oh my god, is that…did you bring _popcorn?_ ”

“Who’s ‘ _particular?_ ’” Dutch’s icon pops up with an expression that suggests the indignant offense he’s feeling is overwhelming the limited expressions his simulacrum is capable of.

Mike rubs his temple and groans deeply as four voices start squabbling anew. Antonio’s is just a few blocks away.

This is going to be a long lunch.


End file.
